Quick Facts
Biography
Kathleen Ann Merrigan (born October 6, 1959) was sworn in as the United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture on April 8, 2009. She resigned from this position on March 14, 2013. She was the first woman to chair the Ministerial Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2011. She is currently the Executive Director of Sustainability at the George Washington University. At GW she leads the GW Food Institute, the GW Sustainability Collaborative, and is a Professor of Public Policy. She was named “100 most influential people in the world” by Time Magazine in 2010.
Career
She worked at Tufts University as Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
She assisted in writing the 1990 Organic Foods Production Act as a staffer for then-Senate Agriculture Chairman Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) office.
In 1999, she began her career at the USDA by heading the Agricultural Marketing Service. At the USDA Merrigan created, led, and managed the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative. This initiative strengthened USDA programs in order to support local food systems around the country. Merrigan helped develop USDA's organic labeling rules while head of the Agricultural Marketing Service from 1999 to 2001.
Education
She has a PhD in environmental planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas, and a B.A. from Williams College.
Boards and Committees
Merrigan serves on a number of boards and committees including: AGree, the Harvard Pilgrim Healthy Food Fund Advisory Committee, Board Director for the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and FoodCorps, Senior Advisor at the Kendall Foundation, the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors of the National Council for Science and the Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme led initiative TEEB for Agriculture & Food.